At every Steubenville youth conference a Vocation Call is given; young men and women are invited to come forward to be prayed over and blessed by the bishop if they think the Lord might be calling them to the priesthood or religious life.

Fr. Chris Martin started us off by inviting young men who have felt a call to be open to the priesthood to come forward. He shared with them the following thoughts:

Every vocation begins with holiness.

He is going to change the world through you.

Invite your friends to pray for you.

Talk to your priest, your youth minister, your vocation director.

Go on a discernment retreat.

After we all prayed for the young men, Fr. Martin invited all of the religious women to the stage so that they could speak to and pray for the young women at the conference who have felt a call to consider religious life.

Sr. Mary Michael, a Carmelite of the Divine Heart of Jesus, shared these thoughts: Read more »

Our conference closed in the best possible way: with a beautiful closing Mass, celebrated by Bishop Rice of Saint Louis.

Before Mass began, our host, Ennie, reminded the teens that the same Eucharist who was with them so powerfully in prayer last night during adoration would also come to them in Mass this morning, in an even more powerful way.

And he went on to say that the same Eucharist is also present in their Catholic churches back home. That's the beauty of our Catholic faith - Christ is always with us, anywhere there's a tabernacle or adoration chapel.

Dan Harms & Kyle Heimann, the men who call themselves “Popple” started us off in true masculine form, leading us in singing the classic Survivor tune “The Eye of the Tiger”

They shared with us the Biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who would rather be thrown into a fiery furnace than compromise their convictions.

Then, they told us of St. Stephen’s martyrdom and the tremendous impact it had on Saul - who later became St. Paul – as a way of reminding us that we can have a life-changing influence on others if we remain faithful to God.

Here are some very powerful quotes from men’s session:

Being a man means being who God calls us to be, even when no one is looking.

You just have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be, Clark. Whoever that man is, he's going to change the world. – from the movie “Man of Steel”Read more »

Saturday afternoon = time to split up into Men's and Women's sessions. Our female speaker, Katie Hartfiel, led the girls once all the men had exited the arena.

"Dear Lord," she prayed to open, "Thank You for not making us boys. Amen."

She spoke about how we all struggle with a life of holiness, since we all live in our current Culture of Death, as Bl. Pope John Paul II has said. And when we swim in the river of the Culture of Death, it's hard to not get that stink all over us.

Her Scripture focus this afternoon was the story of the Woman at the Well, sometimes also called the Prodigal Daughter. Like that woman, we can choose to identify ourselves by our mistakes or struggles. But Christ calls us to something else.

And when we fall in love with Christ, His love transforms us into the women He created us to be - the absolute best versions of ourselves. He makes all things new. Read more »

This afternoon's keynote talk was given by our host, Ennie Hickman. His topic was the Truth - and he brought it.

We live in a world full of relativism, where everyone believes that whatever you believe is okay. Truth is based on opinion, without any clear right or wrong. "And when everyone is sick," Ennie said, "no one knows what healthy is."

But we know that Truth does exist. Christ is the Truth, the Way and the Life. Period.

We are hungry for so many things - for love, for money, for adventure. We are terrified of being alone, rejected, broke, or bored. And Christ knows that we're hungry - He also knows how to satisfy us.

"It's no accident that Jesus was born in Bethlehem (which means 'house of bread') or laid in a feeding trough, or multiplied the loaves and fishes, or gave us Himself as food in the Eucharist," Ennie said. He is the good stuff, the meal that satisfies and fulfills.